Technical Field
This Patent Disclosure relates generally to resistor ladder DACs (digital to analog converters), and more particularly to multi-ladder DACs.
Related Art
Integrated circuit (IC) electronics need to be protected from electrical interference/damage. For example, ESD (electrostatic discharge) can damage ICs or reduce IC life cycle.
One protection mechanism is to incorporate the electronics within a chassis or case that is separately grounded, so that the internal electronics (PCB) ground is isolated from the chassis (earth) ground. A ground fault condition occurs if the PCB ground shorts to the chassis ground. Off-line circuit diagnostics can be performed (such as through current injection), but for some applications, such as automation, off-line diagnostics are disruptive.
While this Background information references a PCB/Chassis system, the Disclosure in this Patent Document is more generally directed to ground fault detection based on capacitive sensing.